Terrific TV Toys: Catwoman statue from "B:TAS," DC Direct, 2022

She looks like she just silently slithered out of a billionaire's penthouse pad, her jeweled prize in hand, her sleek cat Isis faithfully at her side. She's Catwoman, and above all else, she's a cat burglar. This new statue from DC Direct captures her spirit, based on artwork by Stanley Lau. She's the Catwoman of "Batman: The Animated Series," clad in gray leotard and dipped in sweet intrigue. Batman always thought he could reform her, didn't he?

See what else is on the Terrific TV Toys playlist.

Loved working with the "Rapture Chronicles" crew once again, and look for another episode soon!

Saturday was a very full day, and this author has been honored to serve as script supervisor on "The Rapture Chronicles" web series. We filmed at two different churches in Detroit, covering several scenes for the next episode of the series. Look for it soon! Learn more about the series, which focuses on the Biblical rapture at the show's Facebook page or the Churchouse Productions site.

BRB, upper left, with actors Lars J Loofboro and Bishop Staten, and in the first row, director and producer Dray Hill with his wife, Monica. Photo courtesy of Dray Hill.

Taking an eerie stroll through Eloise

Historic. Spooky. Ethereal. Abandoned. Even calm. There are lots of words you could use to describe the Eloise facility in Westland, Michigan, commonly known as Eloise Psychiatric Hospital or Eloise Asylum. Many visitors have been intrigued by the history of the huge complex, which once encompassed 902 acres and 78 buildings and now has been reduced to just a handful of buildings on a small parcel. Eloise housed thousands and thousands of patients over its lifetime of operation from 1839 to early 1982, ranging from the poor and homeless to the outright criminally insane. Though the facility was a pioneer in technologies such as the X-ray, it also was known to do treatments such as lobotomy, shock therapy and "hydrotherapy," which this author kinda doesn't even want to know the details of.

I did a tour of Eloise over the weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. A few years back I worked as an extra in a horror film that was set there and that did some exterior filming there, "Eloise," starring Eliza Dushku and Chase Crawford, and ever since then I, too,  have been intrigued by its history. There's a lot of chatter about paranormal activity at Eloise, and there have been episodes of "Expedition X" and "Portals to Hell" shot there. I don't subscribe to any of that, as a believer in the Lord, but I am still interested in the history of the patients there and how they were treated. A lot of people in Metro Detroit know someone who was at Eloise at some point, and there are some stories.

Here are a few shots I took there on the historical tour, which you can also book at the site's Facebook page. The tour was over three hours, concentrating, of course, on the Kay Beard Building (once labeled the "D" building). There are lots more photos on my Flickr channel, and I'm going to be uploading some walking-around video to my secondary YouTube channel in the coming months.

Photos by Billie Rae Bates

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Terrific non-TV Toys: Wonder Woman salt and pepper shaker set by Enesco, 2019

We do so much vintage stuff on the Terrific non-TV Toys series, but this time let's turn to something gleaming and new: a delightful salt and pepper shaker set in the shape of Wonder Woman and her arch-nemesis, Cheetah. Rahrrr!!! This was a super-cool gift from Bobby and Jessica.

See the other episodes in the Terrific non-TV Toys series.

Motor City Comic Con: The cosplay -- oh, the cosplay

There was a little bit of everything at last weekend's Motor City Comic Con. Great Batmen, Catwomen, Captain Americas, "Star Wars" folks, Harley Quinns, Storms, and a whole lotta stuff we didn't recognize because we don't watch those shows or whatevs. How about some walking-around video? See what characters you can spot ...

Look for more great video from the con on the BRBTV YouTube channel.

Motor City Comic Con: Jennifer Morrison

She was wonderful as Emma Swan on ABC's "Once Upon a Time." BRBTV saw every episode. Emma was smart, tough, plucky, and the central character to so much that was going on during the series run. So how did Jennifer Morrison feel about that whole "dark swan" turn that Emma did? Does she prefer acting or directing? What about her time on "House" -- how did she have to prepare, and what was Hugh Laurie like? Hear the answers to those questions and more in these clips from her panel discussion at last weekend's Motor City Comic Con.

Look for more great video from the con on the BRBTV YouTube channel.

Motor City Comic Con: Amy Jo Johnson

We know her as Kimberly the Pink Power Ranger on "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" of the 1990s, as well as from "Felicity" and "Flashpoint" in more recent years. But did you know she has been working on a comic book? Amy Jo Johnson talks about that, as well as about why she left acting (but still works behind the camera), her fondness for "Power Rangers" costar Jason David Frank (who died in November 2022), and more in these clips from her panel discussion at last weekend's Motor City Comic Con.

Look for more great video from the con on the BRBTV YouTube channel.

A grand return to the Motor City Comic Con

I suppose I could have gotten back sooner, but in more recent years, I kept talking myself out of it at the last second. But yesterday, this author finally made her way back to the beautiful mayhem of the Motor City Comic Con for the first time since COVID. And a grand return it was. Rather exhilarating, to walk around that ginormous convention hall again -- to see even how much bigger the show has gotten in the past few years. I always cover all the shopping, and it took me a lot longer this time. I walked for hours straight. I caught a couple celeb panels. Got some video you'll see this week on the BRBTV YouTube channel. Saw friends. And, I saw lots of delicious TV-show-related toys ...

"Star Trek," "Battlestar Galactica," classic "Twilight Zone," "Starsky and Hutch," any kind of Batman and Scooby-Doo everywhere, the Power Rangers, Muppets and more ...

Photos by Billie Rae Bates / BRBTV

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Terrific TV Toys: Batgirl from "The New Adventures of Batman," McFarlane Toys, 2024

I won't blame you if you've never seen this 1977 cartoon series -- I have a feeling I have seen little or none of it myself. It's "The New Adventures of Batman," delivered up by Filmation, which was certainly riding high in the 1970s. I suspect it was a follow-up to their 1968 cartoon series "The Adventures of Batman," wouldn't ya say? In the 1977 series, though, you heard the familiar voices of Adam West and Burt Ward. It's surprising only 16 episodes were produced of this series. At any rate, McFarlane Toys has released a new line celebrating this cartoon, and the Batgirl of that set is rolling out in the latest episode of T3 ...

See what else is on the Terrific TV Toys playlist.

Terrific non-TV Toys: Barbie carrying case and fashions, Mattel, 1968-1970s

Previously on the Terrific non-TV Toys series, you saw the '70s Malibu Barbie, Ken, P.J. and Skipper dolls of this author's childhood, for better or worse, for whatever weathering these treasures may have endured over the decades, even being simply stored in a box. Then there was the Quick Curl Francie doll on a more-recent episode. So consider the newest episode of the series a conclusion of that Mattel story arc, as we take an up-close-and-personal look at the Barbie-branded doll and fashion carrying case that went with it all -- along with some luscious fashions! This is truly a trip back in time ...

See the other episodes in the Terrific non-TV Toys series.

See the other Barbies that have been featured on the series.

Terrific TV Toys: Batgirl walkie-talkie prop replica by NECA, 2023

I love that this one is dropping in my birthday month, because it showcases a pure Batgirl item, so meaningful to this author. This was a gift from this past Christmas, aided by BRBTV's unofficial procurement chief Mike, and it's a replica of an actual screen-used item of the "Batman" 1960s TV series. See the photos at the end for Yvonne Craig as Batgirl holding this item in a scene. "Over and out, Batman!!!!"

See what else is on the Terrific TV Toys playlist.

Let's Go Adventuring: Now we're off to Canada for the Fleetwood Country Cruize-In

I see from the website that Steve Plunkett no longer hosts these humungous car shows on his fabulous estate in London, Ontario, Canada, and it's a shame. But this yearly show raised a lot of money for charity over its 15-year span. Here, in the latest installment of this author's "Let's Go Adventuring" playlist on my secondary YouTube channel, you'll see a couple sights and sounds from the 2015 year of the Fleetwood Country Cruize-In car show. It was a "Dukes of Hazzard" theme that year, which was amazing, because I got to see some cast members again, as well as some treasured "Dukes" friends.

This week's clip is quick -- less than a minute -- but look for Part 2 next Friday, and Part 3 the following Friday.

See the other videos on the playlist, and please like and subscribe to help a sister out!

Terrific non-TV Toys: Batmobile Hot Wheels by Mattel, 2021

Our good friend Jim has done it again. This talented Canadian artist has sent us more wonderful Batman-themed gifts all the way from the Great White North. In the latest episode of Terrific non-TV Toys we're showcasing three of them: all movie-themed Batmobiles. One is golden much like the golden '66 "Batman" TV series Batmobile you saw in an episode of Terrific TV Toys, and the other two are quite different. 

See Jim's amazing art at his Facebook page.

See the other episodes in the Terrific non-TV Toys series.

Here are the videos from last weekend's Great Lakes Comic Con

It was so great to get to a comic con again -- this author has really not been to many since COVID. And the last time I went to this particular show, the Great Lakes Comic Con at the Macomb Expo Center in Michigan, was actually right before the COVID lockdowns when two of the cast members of the classic "Shazam!" Saturday-morning TV series were appearing. What a good time that was, and this past Saturday at the show was just as bright. See Sunday's post for some photos from the event, and here are the BRBTV videos from Saturday:

Thanks again to the wonderful cast members for your love and care for the fans over the weekend, and thanks to Howard, Chris and everyone I spoke with on Saturday!

What a great time it was getting "Lost" at the Great Lakes Comic Con

The folks at the Great Lakes Comic Con, which is taking place this weekend at the Macomb Expo Center / Macomb Community College in Michigan, offer a really nice opportunity to get "Lost" with the cast members of the classic 1970s TV show "Land of the Lost": Will and Holly -- Wesley Eure and Kathy Coleman -- as well as Cha-Ka, aka Phillip Paley. And wow, a whole jungle scene of wonderful atmospherics provided by super-fans Howard and his wife Marsha: Dopey and his cart, oversized strawberries, the "Beware of Sleestak" sign, a Pylon, and more. Plus, fellow fan Chris made an amazing matrix table replica that actually lights up. Here are a few pics from yesterday, and look for video coverage of the event this week on the BRBTV YouTube channel, including the full panel discussion. You can also see photos from the event at the "LOTL" Facebook group.

Photos by Billie Rae Bates / BRBTV

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Announcing the audio versions of "Tonda Sky" and "Enie"

Amazon did an amazing thing recently -- they made it super-easy to publish audio versions of books on their Kindle Direct Publishing platform, which is where this author has a bunch of her own books. I've always had an interest over the years in doing an audio version of one or more of my novels, but I just didn't know how to go about it. And I always had so many projects going on at once, anyway, so I never had much time for that particular learning curve. Now, with the advancements in artificial intelligence, Amazon is beta-testing automaticagically generated audiobooks in the KDP, and I just published my first two. The first was the recently released "Tonda Sky" science-fiction novel -- my very first book, written in college, as you'll see in this November 15, 2023 post. The second is "Enie: A Story of Redemption," which will always be my favorite novel for various important reasons.

These audio books are available on both Amazon and Audible. The KDP platform gives you a choice of several different virtual voices, so I chose voices that I felt fit the tone and message of these books. These unabridged audiobooks are both priced low, and you can even get them free with a membership trial. "Tonda Sky" is a shorter novel -- actually geared toward younger readers -- and it clocks in at 8 hours of listening time. "Enie," though, is a whopping 19 hours. Wow, that's a nice long time to get involved in the story while you're driving or working a jigsaw puzzle or whatever. I love that Amazon has done this! So check them out and let me know what you think.

Terrific TV Toys: "Dallas" truck by Greenlight Hollywood, 2013

So if you're picturing a set of toy miniature vehicles a la Hot Wheels celebrating the great classic primetime soap "Dallas," what do you think of? Bobby Ewing's hot little red Mercedes convertible? Jock Ewing's stately Lincoln? J.R.'s Cadillac or Lincoln? That's not quite what you're getting with this set from Greenlight Hollywood released about a decade ago. In fact, BRBTV must admit that when we snagged this blue Chevy pickup truck, we racked our brains a bit on where on earth it appeared in the episodes. The answer -- along with a glimpse of the website where you can look up this fun fact and so much more -- is in the latest episode of the T3 series ...

See what else is on the Terrific TV Toys playlist.

Camel ride, anyone? Let's travel to Egypt next ...

We made it to Friday, thank the Lord, and another travel video has dropped on this author's secondary YouTube channel. This time it's quite an exotic locale, a trip to another continent, and a tour of ancient holy sites. Back in 1996, I traveled with my mom on a Holy Land pilgrimage, I guess they call them. We just called it a two-week tour of holy sites. We spent a lot of time in Israel, and we also spent a couple days in Jordan that were fabulous (now there is a surprisingly lovely country, and a peaceful one, at least at the time -- we stayed in Aqaba). But then the tail end of the trip was spent in the amazing Egypt. We saw the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, stepped inside one of the pyramids at Giza, had dinner aboard a boat on the Nile. It was all quite astonishing, and I've always wanted to go back. I was using a regular film camera back then, so I have no video of my own from the trip. But a member of the party named Terri was kind enough to make a copy of her own extensive video for my mom and I, and that's what you'll see here in two parts.

Terri did the hike up Mt. Sinai at sunrise, which my mom and I did not do. It was way too early in the morning for me to get up, and there has always been the question as to whether or not this truly is the real Mt. Sinai (read Howard Blum's "The Gold of Exodus" and you'll get a whole different view). So that time at the top of the "accepted" site of Mt. Sinai is what you see at the beginning of this video. 

You'll also get a quick glimpse of an Egyptian wedding ceremony taking place at our hotel. It was loud and grand, and as I was watching part of the procession in the hotel lobby, a kid who was attending, maybe about 12 or 13 years old, was sitting nearby with friends and asked me if I would go into the reception with him for a couple minutes. I said sure, so we went inside and sat down, and all the adults at the reception who knew him starting laughing and clapping for him, that he brought a young American female to the party. It was a very funny moment, not shown on this video but just going on behind the scenes.

At the end of this first part, as our tour bus arrives at the Pyramids, you can get a feel for a phenomenon that I was very struck by -- the bursting metro region of Cairo (we were told the city and its surrounding areas had a population of 16 million at the time) comes up to the Pyramids and just stops, and there's nothing but desert beyond, on the other side of the Pyramids.

But wow, as I watch this video, I can hear my mother talking in the background in parts, and I can feel like I'm right back there, all those years ago, as I see our group sitting on the floor of the Muhammad Ali Mosque. I remember how it felt, what temperature that cavernous room was, how it all looked with the bright lights above us everywhere, how the carpet felt. So thankful to Terri for capturing this video.

See the other videos on the "Let's Go Adventuring" playlist -- another one is dropped each Friday, at least for the next few months.

When is being a narcissist OK? On TV, of course!

This author has delved into the psychology of narcissism lately for reasons I won't go into (!). The more I analyze, and the more I think about it, the more I realize we have had a lot of narcissists on the television shows we have known and loved over the years. In fact, narcissists  have really made the world go 'round, when it comes to TV. They make for interesting -- albeit compelling -- characters. If you'd like a primer on just what narcissism is, from a psychological standpoint, you can do an online search, or I can recommend this playlist from MedCircle. In the meantime, why don't we have some fun with a little look at TV characters we could probably peg as narcissists? It happens to be that these are all female, but hey, that's just how it worked out, since this author has a chick perspective!!!

Blair Warner, "The Facts of Life"

From her love affair with the mirror to the continual catty exchanges with her no-nonsense schoolmate Jo, Blair was always a treat (or an ordeal) to watch. Lisa Whelchel portrayed her with such ease, acting circles around most of the other cast members in the 1979 first season (and she was a teen) before the show winnowed the girls down to a core of four the following year.

Hilary Banks, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"

BRBTV always considered her the Veronica Lodge of the "Fresh Prince" show, and she did it with such style. Oooh, la-la, those '90s fashions -- we loved them. We always admired her flair and her confident air, as portrayed by Karyn Parsons.

Ginger, "Gilligan's Island"

This author is a redhead, so how could I not admire Ginger? Always my fave "Gilligan" character, hands down. Her slinky golden dress (which I actually tried to find online one time, when I was considering cosplaying the show at a con with a couple buddies), her soft, lilting voice, her coo-ing ... her self-absorption. Wow, what a package. In the eternal question of Mary Ann vs. Ginger, BRBTV highly recommends Ginger!

Alexis Carrington, "Dynasty"

Oh, boy, now here's a good one. You couldn't get any more fiercely, beautifully, shrewdly, intelligently and very highly female-ly (?) narcissistic than the queen antagonist of the classic '80s soap "Dynasty." We have to qualify this by saying this is the Alexis of the original "Dynasty" series, not the CW remake, as beloved as it is by BRBTV (such wonderful eye candy, for one thing). The latter Alexis had far less bite, far fewer smarts. The original Alexis as portrayed by Joan Collins was always a force to be reckoned with, someone you admired without wanting to.

Miss Piggy, "The Muppets"

That beautiful porker with such amore for her co-star Kermit the Frog will always be dear to our hearts. She's fashionable, she's really quite dazzling, and she never has a hair out of place. Even if pigs don't really have that kind of hair. OK, whatever.

Veronica Lodge, various Archies series in animation and live action

We can't mention Veronica Lodge above without including her, too! And she's been portrayed in several TV Archies incarnations over the years. We especially love the quite whiny version in the animated "Archie's Weird Mysteries" series of 1999, in which there was, appropriately enough, a Veronica-focused episode called "Me! Me! Me!" Voiced by Camille Schmidt, she was so true to the comics version of the character. Also the case for Alyson Court's voicework on "The New Archies" of a few years earlier. Not so true to the comics version is the Veronica of the live-action "Riverdale." In fact, as portrayed by Camila Mendes, she is intelligent, savvy and often kind. She thinks about others in her actions. Hmmm ... that just doesn't work, ya know??? Anyway, take heart, another live-action incarnation, the TV movie "Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again," featured Karen Kopins as a Veronica in high Veronica style.

Daphne Blake, various Scooby-Doo series

We can't say that Daphne has always been depicted as a narcissist, but she sometimes has. The late '80s "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" comes to mind, where the lovely Kellie Martin's voicework lit up Daph in some nice full-color, self-involved splendor. What a surprise, knowing Martin so well from "Life Goes On" and the later "Mystery Woman" series. But anyone will tell you (I'm looking at you, Wendy!) that Daphne Blake is very smart, too. And she's so often kind and considerate. Even if she is a bit of a klutz.

Any others? Who have I left out? How about some male examples? Feel free to comment below!